Bruce Bouillet
Bruce Bouillet (pronounced boo-yay) is an American guitarist, producer, and audio engineer from Vincennes, Indiana. Bouillet rose to fame as the second guitarist in Racer X and appears only on Second Heat, Extreme Volume Live, ''and Extreme Volume II. Initially a student of Paul Gilbert at Hollywood's Guitar Institute of Technology, Bouillet was later hired to play in Racer X and added harmonized leads and dueling solos to the band's sound. Although Bouillet only appears on one studio album and two live albums, he is considered one of the band's core members and maintains a friendship with his Racer X bandmates to this day. Pre-Racer X Bruce Bouillet was born on a naval base in Memphis, Tennessee but later moved to Vincennes, Indiana. As a teenager, he became interested in rock and metal music and soon got his first live exposure to the genre at a Judas Priest/KISS concert. Bouillet remarks that within the first song of Judas Priest's set, he knew that he wanted to play guitar for the rest of his life. Amps & Axes #067 - Bruce Bouillet (2016) He quickly got his first guitar (a Les Paul copy) and amp (a Peavey Backstage 30) and began playing in local bands, deriving his stylistic influence from bands such as Van Halen and Rush. He soon upgraded to a Marshall stack and gained local fame from playing large shows in his area. Near the date of his high school graduation, he saw an advertisement in a guitar magazine for the Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, California. Initially thinking his parents would disapprove of his cross-country move, they gave their blessing on the grounds that he would be attending a school. After unsuccessfully trying to persuade his bandmates to move west with him, Bouillet embarked across the country by himself to attend GIT. On his first day in Los Angeles, Bouillet attended the graduation performance of Paul Gilbert, who was accompanied by the other members of Racer X. Bouillet, blown away by Gilbert's guitar skill, requested Paul as his private teacher in order to learn the techniques that he'd seen. Bruce was a diligent student and would spend long periods of time practicing the sequences that Gilbert had shown him. Double Stop Podcast Ep. 32 - Bruce Bouillet (Racer X, The Scream, Solo) A while later, Bouillet was walking down the hall and passed one of Gilbert's open counseling sessions. Paul invited him in, and began demonstrating a fast string-skipping sequence that was relatively unknown at the time. Bruce, on the spot, played the sequence in harmony with Gilbert, later referring to this event as "the luckiest manuever I ever pulled". Having thoroughly proven his skills without even realizing it, Bruce was given a copy of ''Street Lethal, ''the first Racer X album, by Gilbert and invited to a jam with the band. Bruce learned the album with some assistance from Paul and was subsequently invited to be the lighting operator at a Racer X show. Afterwards, Paul invited Bruce to become the second guitar player in Racer X. Racer X Throughout 1986, Bruce was touring with Racer X and adding harmonized sections to established songs such as "Loud and Clear". Additionally, he and Gilbert began incorporating guitar stunts into their performances. During the solo to "Getaway", Bouillet would use his left hand to fret the notes on Paul's guitar while Paul picked the notes with his right hand.Racer X - Getaway - Country Club Live 1986 During his tenure with Racer X, Bouillet shared a house with Juan Alderete. Writing for the second Racer X album was underway at this point. The new set of songs began to incorporate elaborate guitar harmonies and dueling guitar sections. The album was recorded at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, CA in the winter of 1986 and was released under the title ''Second Heat in February of 1987http://www.shrapnelrecords.com/cd/second-heat-cd. The album, which included famous instrumental "Scarified", showcased Bruce's powerhouse guitar abilities and gained him a high degree of fame locally, as well as feature spots in nationally circulated advertisements for Ibanez and D'Angelico strings. Around this time, Bouillet had graduated from GIT and was hired as an instructor. He was noted for his blues influences and sweeping sequences in contrast to Gilbert who utilized a more traditional sound as well as more reliance on string skipping. Bruce recorded an instructional tape, entitled "Improvisation for Progressive Hard Rock Guitar", which was more straight-ahead and focused chiefly on theory in contrast to Gilbert's "Intense Rock" tape. Racer X continued to tour in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and Phoenix, gaining a larger mass of followers. Two of these live performances were recorded as Extreme Volume Live ''and ''Extreme Volume II. The first album featured a solo spot from Bruce which was highly acclaimed and demonstrated his high degree of technical skill. However, Racer X soon found itself stagnating. After failing to grab the attention of major labels, the band's success began to wane as its crowd sizes either stagnated or diminished slightly. Paul Gilbert left to form Mr. Big with Billy Sheehan, and Bruce was temporarily the only guitarist in the band until they hired Chris Arvan for a brief time. However, the remaining members quickly agreed that Racer X was a dead-end pursuit and, after one final show at the Omni in Oakland, disbanded amicably. Around this time, Bruce had developed carpal tunnel syndrome and in fact missed some of the final Racer X shows to seek treatment. After Racer X Following Racer X's breakup, Bouillet moved on to L.A.-based rock band The Scream in 1989. This transition was not particularly jarring, as 3 out of the 4 initial members were from Racer X; Juan Alderete on bass, and Scott Travis on drums. Travis left shortly after to join Judas Priest for their Painkiller album in 1990, and lead singer John Corabi left The Scream after recording their 1991 album Let It Scream. Though The Scream survived for a short time afterward, Bouillet's carpal tunnel had worsened to the point where he had to quit playing guitar. At this point, he moved into production and sound engineering. Though he'd quit playing guitar in 1993, Bouillet was again asked to join a band called Epidemic in 2001. He was able to play guitar by tuning to Open Drop A, which necessitated the use of a light-gauge bass G string in the low E position, and only utilizing one finger to play. Despite this simplistic approach in contrast to his technically demanding work in Racer X, it was with this method that Bouillet finally secured a major label deal with Elektra Records. The band had a song appear in Madden NFL 03, then broke up. Bruce again returned to producing, winning a Grammy Award in 2005 for producing Motorhead's cover of the Metallica song "Whiplash". Eventually, he discovered a practice known as myrotherapy that could be used to fix the injury in his left hand. Indeed, it was successful, and Bouillet began playing guitar once again. In 2007, he reunited with Paul Gilbert to play in the 2007 G3 concert. This series of shows saw the two guitarists playing Racer X pieces such as "Scit Scat Wah" for the first time since the late 80's. Though Bruce was successful in playing these pieces, he and Gilbert did have to re-arrange certain parts in order to prevent Bruce from re-occurring his injury. To accomplish this, they changed some of the licks and, sometimes, Bruce would only harmonize certain notes in a sequence. In 2011, Bouillet replaced Guthrie Govan as the guitarist in Asia ft. John Payne. In 2013, Bouillet released a solo album on Mascot Records entitled The Order of Control. An instrumental concept album, The Order of Control saw Bouillet returning to his rock/metal roots and incorporating technically demanding, albeit melodic, ideas. In 2016, Bouillet recorded a medley of several Racer X songs and solos, mostly from the Second Heat album. Style Bruce is heavily influenced by Paul Gilbert himself, as well as Eddie Van Halen, Glenn Tipton, Ace Frehley, and others. Though he does not exhibit much country influence in his style, he talks about growing up around bluegrass music and has recently incorporated hybrid picking techniques into his playing. Though Bruce and Paul often played in perfect synchronicity, the two have very distinct styles. Fans of the band have often attributed Bruce to a more blues-based style and a heavier use of sweep picking. "Bruce's Solo" off of Extreme Volume Live demonstrates both of these ideas in full effect, and is often regarded as one of the greatest demonstrations of sweep arpeggios. Bouillet also prefers a bluesier tone, often using his neck pickup in lead lines and solos. Paul, in contrast, uses more treble as well as his bridge pickup. On the Extreme Volume albums, Bruce is heard in the right stereo channel while Paul is heard in the left. Today Bouillet is married and has one daughter. He currently lives in Los Angeles and offers guitar lessons over the video messaging service Skype.brucebouillet.com References